BEREAVED relatives and victims of drink-drive crashes are calling for tougher sentences for offenders as new figures are released.

The number of drink drivers caught this Christmas was down compared to the previous year after a campaign by Dorset Police.

But a mother and a sister who lost loved ones in crashes are backing injured victim Pete Bower’s calls for heavier punishment.

Mr Bower, 54, almost died when he was hit by a driver still over the limit from the night before.

He said: “The courts make an absolute joke of drink-driving.

“People get fined more for not having a TV licence. I’m obviously paying more attention now and they’ve got to make the punishment harder.”

Mechanic Mr Bower, 54, of Church Lane, Portland, suffered a broken arm, hip, leg, ribs, pelvis and femur and spent nine and-a-half weeks in four different hospitals.

He believes it should not be legal to drive after any alcohol.

The driver who hit Mr Bower was banned from driving for a year and fined £300. Costs were £100.

Mr Bower added: “The court did not take into account the fact that he’s probably messed my life up.”

The number of breath tests failed or refused in Dorset fell by 23 per cent – from 134 to 103 – during this year's drink-drive campaign in December.

But Joan Dickinson, whose brother Dennis Watts was killed by drunk Belgian lorry driver Didier Gillis, said drivers ‘aren’t getting the message’.

She said: “They think it’s never going to happen to them but it sank home to all of us that it can.

“One day Dennis was here and the next he wasn’t but we’ve got to live with it.”

Mr Watts, 56, from Bere Regis, was driving a tractor when it was hit by a lorry being driven by Gillis.

A breath test showed Gillis had been three times over the legal drink-drive limit at the time of the crash and he was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop and failing to report the accident.

Mrs Dickinson, 60, from near Dorchester, added: “It ruins a lot of people’s lives.”

Angela Hearn lost her three-month-old son Jonathan to a drink-driver.

She said: “The police could not do enough in getting the evidence but how magistrates decide the penalties I do not know.

“Drivers are still risking people’s lives and it’s never going to change unless the courts get sterner.”

Jonathan was in his pram when he was hit by a car which mounted the pavement on Littlemoor Road, Weymouth.

Miss Hearn, 51, of Emmadale Road, Weymouth, added: “I’ve been left with a legacy of mourning my baby until I die.”